Another World

On the way home

As you shuffle your tired feet down the dirt street, you suddenly hear a terrified scream of a young woman, followed by desperate cries for help. You try not to turn to look at the conflict that's about to unfold, but you can't stop yourself. You see one of The Wretched puppets approaching her, its empty eyes and bony face staring lifelessly into the eyes of the young mother.

You see that The puppet has ripped away a baby blanket from her, revealing that her newborn son was born without a left hand. Your stomach turns as you realize what's about to happen. No imperfect drones are ever allowed to live past birth as they have been stamped as an unworthy person to serve the "Queen". Midwives are expected to rid of them immediately. The young mother must have pleaded with the doctor that delivered her child to spare him.

The woman tries to run, but more of the Witches guards came to investigate the sound of screaming. They block her and snatch up the child from her arms. Both you and the young mother can only watch in horror as the crying baby is beheaded with a sword. His limp little body is then thrown into a bin of garbage, as the mother collapses to her knees and begins sobbing uncontrollably. 

You wait until the vile-kin guards have left, but once they do, you walk to the upset mother and attempt to console her. Unfortunately, she's sobbing much and too loudly to hear your words and even if she wasn't, you have a feeling she still wouldn't listen.

Remembering the cloth you received from the young man, you look to the corpse of the baby. A wave of nausea sweeps over you, but you ignore it.

Sometimes, as your father taught you, the only thing one can do for the grief of the living is to show respect to the dead. To have her child thrown away like trash is an insult to the his loss. His blanket was stolen by guards so you carefully gather up his corpse in the cloth you have, wrapping him up carefully so it looks like his head is still connected to his body. You gently close his eyes so it seems as if he's just sleeping and you wipe away some of the dirt from his face, then you hand the body to the young mother. "He ... should be buried properly," you murmur quietly.

She looks up at you with her tear-stained face, holding back her sobs as she realizes what you've done for her child. Taking him into her arms, she holds his body close and whispers a thank you. As you turn to leave, she grabs your wrist. You look into her swollen eyes curiously and she hands you a small, rough-carved toy horse.You accept the gift with a few soft words of thanks, then you leave her to mourn for her son in peace.